The Provincial Board of Negros Oriental may have already approved the 2013 budget of Negros Oriental amounting to P1.418 billion, but the fight for the controversial Intelligence Fund is far from over.
Gov. Roel Degamo said he has not yet received the Resolution from the Provincial Board approving the budget, which scrapped his P10 million Intelligence Fund and instead allocated it to other offices which the board members said needed the funds more.
“They want to terrorize the province,” Degamo said, citing the usefulness of the said Intelligence Fund in the maintenance of peace and order in the Province. In previous interview, Degamo said the surrender of several NPA rebels resulted from the judicious use of the fund.
Intelligence Funds are funds which may be freely spent by the Governor subject only to the accounting of the national office of the Commission on Audit.
The Governor said that for the 2013 budget to be operational, he would first have to approve it. But he will again return the budget to the Provincial Board to insist that the P10 million fund be retained.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Audit, in its report submitted to the Governor last year, said the expenditures of the Province in 2011 for Confidential and Intelligence Expenses amounting to P12.7 million, “far exceeded the allowable limit of P4,020,000 as computed pursuant to DILG Memorandum Circular No. 99-65 dated April 23, 1999.
As a result, the COA said, the Province incurred invalid expenditures of P8,680,000.
The COA then directed the Province to observe the limitations in the appropriation of funds for Intelligence and Confidential Purposes and to submit a copy of the prior approval of the Department of Interior and Local Government secretary for the overspent amount.
